Rob Eggert stood on the mound with his glove hand rested on his knee and the raindrops bouncing off his hat.

Having just watched two runs score on an error, bringing the tying run to third base in the seventh inning of South Plainfield’s Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament quarterfinal matchup with South Brunswick, Eggert needed to refocus.

“I just kept saying, you got this,” Eggert said.

The closer took a deep breath and fired a fastball at Ty Robinson, who sent it right back up the middle. Eggert fielded it off his chest and threw to first base to close out South Plainfield’s wild 12-11 victory over South Brunswick at North Brunswick Community Park.

“I blinked, it hit me in the stomach, then I wanted to throw up,” said Eggert, who pitched only the seventh. “I held it in and then it was all smiles.”

Eggert’s 1-3 putout capped a game that was filled with comebacks, offense, drama and more offense. South Plainfield initially jumped on top, 2-0, just to watch South Brunswick take a five-run lead thanks to a seven-run fourth inning.

Dan Tesser and Matt Cooney each hit a two-run double and three more runs scored on errors. South Plainfield coach Anthony Guida did his best to keep his team from unraveling.

“These kids have a lot of faith in each other, they believe in each other,” Guida said. “We know if we have outs, we’re gonna have an opportunity to score some runs.”

In the top of the fifth, South Plainfield began its comeback, loading the bases with none away. L.J. Scarpitto scored on a passed ball and Aidan McDermott followed with a two-run single.

“I just kept telling my teammates, if we’re making mistakes, they’re going to make mistakes,” said McDermott, who finished 4-for-5 with three RBI. “If we could hit it and get on base, we knew we’d pull through.”

South Brunswick answered with a run in the home half of the inning to make the score 8-5. South Plainfield’s offense then erupted in the six and seventh innings.

With runners at second and third, Bryan Gillen stepped to the plate for a bases-clearing triple. McDermott then drove home Gillen to tie the game. In the seventh, South Plainfield grabbed its first lead of the day on a two-run double from Chris Graves.

“I just kept thinking, hands to the ball,” Graves said. “See a strike and hit it as hard as I can. I saw it go through and thought, ‘Yes!’

One batter later, Kyle Dickerson added two runs of insurance when he hit a home run over the left-field wall.

“We both battled the whole time, it was a seesaw battle,” Guida said. “I thought that home run was a big cushion. I never thought that would turn out to be the game winner.”

As had been the case throughout, South Brunswick roared back. A sixth South Plainfield error with the bases loaded plated two runs and put runners at the corners. The winning run stepped to the plate before Eggert escaped the jam.

“This just feels great. You honestly get goosebumps,” Eggert said. “It was scary at first, not gonna lie, but I was confident in my team. We pulled this out together.”

South Plainfield advanced to the semifinals of the GMC Tournament on Saturday. South Plainfield hasn’t won a GMCT title since 1981.

“The past five years, all we’ve really had are records,” McDermott said. “We want a GMC title, we want a state title. We think we started that campaign today.”